Voting Right Wing

I just do not understand middle class people voting Republican / Tea Party, Conservative / Reform.

What do these parties promise? Lower taxes, family values, less regulation and government.

The Reform party bribed us with a lower GST rate with it dropping from seven per cent to five per cent. By a rough calculation, based on adding all expenses on which i think GST was collected, i saved about $500 per year. Wow.

At the same time they dropped the corporate tax rate and introduced a whole bunch of tax credits and deductions for businesses. Most of which are foreign owned and controlled. These tax reductions cost the Canadian government billions. No one in the middle class saw a penny of this. Meanwhile, services are being cut to afford the tax cuts.

A lot of these services are used by the poorer folk but some are used by the middle class.

So to recap, the dumb middle class conservative voter is pocketing $500 so that major corporations can save billions. The middle class conservative voter is also doing without many services previously supplied for free. Services like environmental protection, food inspection, health care funding, ... the list goes on and on.

Greece and the Bailout

As we will be vacationing in Greece later this year, i have been following the situation in Greece closer than i might otherwise have done.

I think the Euro Banks, International Monetary Fund, and World Bank have it all wrong.

What are the facts as they are known?

Greece is basically bankrupt.
Corruption is rampant.
The guy on the street, from the lowliest street sweeper to the highest of the high, are paid outrageous wages with exorbitant benefits and ridiculous vacation entitlements.
Tax evasions and avoidance are national pastimes.

So what are the financial gurus requiring as part of the bailout?

Rollback of all these high wages, benefits, and vacation entitlements of the working class stiff.
Raising the pensionable retirement age by a few years.
Increasing taxes.
Cutting government services.
And privatisation of many government assets and profitable services.

Let's look a little bit closer at these areas.

The Greek government is owed about 41.1 billion Euros in taxes. Of this amount, 37 billion Euros are owed by just 6,500 individuals and 8,200 companies. A simple average means about 2,500,000 Euros each.

The lowly street sweeper is not likely to be the beneficiary of the corruption but rather the brunt of it in terms of having to pay to obtain even the most basic of government services. And even if he does benefit, it will not add up to the missing 2,500,000 Euros in income taxes owed on average by the rich few.

Furthermore, having to bribe a civil servant to obtain even a simple permit means that tax evasion is on everyone's mind as in, why pay taxes when we have to pay again for the services the taxes are supposed to provide.

The bulk of the tax evaders are probably those best in a position to be the beneficiaries of the corruption.

As for the high wages, benefits, and vacation entitlements, the best way to keep the citizenry quiet and complacent is to bribe them with their own money in the form of these high wages, benefits, and vacation entitlements.

So, what is the real solution?

Deal with the top level corruption and tax evaders. Collect the 37 billion Euros which incidentally, is the same amount the Euro Banks are insisting that private enterprises raise as part of their commitment in bailing out Greece. Seize the assets of those unwilling to pay their outstanding taxes.

Make corruption on the scale seen in Greece a treasonable offence. Seize the assets and jail the offenders.

The total value of rolling back the wages and benefits of the working stiff and collecting their tiny portion of the outstanding taxes is minuscule in comparison to the corruption and greed at the top levels of government and businesses.

But this will not happen because the members of the Euro Banks, International Monetary Fund, and World Bank are the same ones benefiting large from the corruption in Greece and elsewhere in the world. They do not penalise their friends.

My new manifesto

My new manifesto

I do not have any descendents and have probably only 30 years to live, if that, so, my new philosophy.

I have a nice house in a nice neighbourhood. To keep it so, i want more police on the streets to keep the riff-raff out.

I want more jails to hold the riff-raff that come into my neighbourhood and threaten my peace.

I do not care about farmers owning guns and all the guns used by the gangs are not registered anyway. So, i do not care for the gun registry because it does nothing to protect me. The extra police in my neighbourhood will protect me with the extra jails to hold those with guns threatening my peace.

I do not belong to a special interest group whose existence would be supported by the long form census so i do not care whether they census us or not, at all.

I want to maintain my comfortable style of living so i need the gasoline, petroleum by-products, and plastics, and pharmaceuticals derived from the tar-sands. Who cares about a duck or two when my standard of living is at risk?

I have seen elephants, lions, tigers, and bears in the zoo so why should i care about saving the wild ones who would only attack me should i visit their native country and wander off the beaten track.

My education is complete so why do i need to support public schools and universities with my taxes. If someone wants an education, pay for it.

I use very little of government services so why should i pay taxes for services i do not use or need. This is called negative billing. Privatise it all and let me pick the services i need and pay for them as i use them.

As i figure it, i will only be around for another 20 or 30 years, climate change will not affect me much, maybe some bad weather here and there. So why should i care about the impending changes for the worse. Assuming climate change exists anyway.

I am Canadian. I am in it for me alone. If you can't afford to live here, move or get a job. Vote for the Harper Government.

Finally, common sense on Police Budget

We finally have some common sense on the police budget being expressed by someone with knowledge and experience.

Read the letter from John Sewell and see how we can end the police gravy train.

Years ago, someone calculated that nearly one-third of all police arrests were personal use marijuana related. By extension, this means that one-third of all police officers are chasing personal use marijuana users. Make it legal and we can fire this one-third of all police officers for a huge saving in salaries, court costs, incareration costs, ...

Others have commented on how we are the speed trap city of North America. Imagine how many police officers are sitting in their speed trap cars eating doughnoughts. And how much money could be saved if we used a bit of intelligence in attacking speeders?